Attack From Above

By C.S. Michaels

In the year 2292, Titan Wolf, or Ty as he liked to be called, was two days away from reporting to duty on a Spacecraft Carrier and starting his journey traveling the galaxy. Without warning, the Earth was attacked by an alien species, up ending Ty’s life. While trying to make it to the nearest military base so he could help defend the planet, Ty unexpectedly forms a bond as he tries to survive the death and destruction around him.

• Language: English
• Publisher: C.S. Michaels
• Release date: Dec 1, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370580613

Book preview

Prologue

Early in the history of humans, people dreamed of traveling the universe in search of other life. In the 1950’s, humans finally reached space and in 1969, humans finally stepped on an object other than the Earth.

For several decades after traveling to the moon, humans grew bored with space travel. They were consumed with hate for each other and found they would rather fight amongst themselves than work together for a common goal, which was no different than throughout human history. Eventually, peace became predominant and countries were finally able to work together to build ships that would travel through space.

Part of human nature was to explore, whether it was new continents, below oceans or into space. With exploration on their minds, a few of the wealthiest countries developed a pact to work together to explore, mine and populate other planets and moons. The first choice to build a space station was the moon because it was the closest body to the earth and humans had already been there a handful of times.

It took several years, but eventually humans had successfully built a mining colony on the moon. As humans expanded the development of the moon, the first people began inhabiting it full-time. They built a self-sustaining colony using modern technology and grew their own food and produced their own water. This allowed them to live independently on the moon and they thrived.

After that, the next target was Mars. Carrying out the same plan as they had for the moon, they implemented their strategy to populate Mars. This took considerably longer because of the distance, but given enough time Mars had a human population as well.

Humans were stuck there for several decades until the technology was developed to increase the speed at which spacecrafts could travel through space. Movies always depicted spacecraft being able to travel the speed of light but that was always thought of as impractical or unrealistic, at least to the knowledge of the engineers working on space flight. However, eventually humans significantly increased the speed at which spacecraft could travel. As a result, humans reduced the length of time it took to reach Mars from six months to just a few days.

Not only were they able to increase the speed at which ships could travel, but technology was developed to launch ships out of the Earth’s gravitational pull with minimal cost. This allowed countries to send large amounts of supplies from the Earth without the huge costs that were normally associated with space flight. It finally became feasible for countries to send the necessary equipment to distant lands to build the infrastructure needed to allow humans to not only live, but to prosper.

This leap in technology allowed humans to reach some of the moons in the outer region of the solar system, like the moons orbiting around Saturn. Along with reaching them, they colonized them as they had the moon and Mars.

It was imperative that these colonies used natural resources when possible since it wouldn’t be practical to continuously ship supplies to every colony. Every place was different, so in some colonies it was easier to become self-sustaining than in other colonies.

Since some of these new worlds had water stored deep underground, it became a necessity to be able to get to it. Once again, the technology was developed to enable this. In cases where there wasn’t much water, the technology had been developed to make their own water.

These colonies were also able to make their own food by using a variety of methods. Growing food and raising animals was difficult to do on these foreign lands, so they had developed a way to deliver nutrition and calories in small bars and even some pills that were manufactured by scientists. This was not only useful for the colonies but also for the people on Earth since by this time they could no longer grow enough food to feed everyone.

Not satisfied with the planets and moons of the current solar system, the leaders of earth wanted to expand into even further star systems. Spacecraft continued to get faster, but they still couldn’t cross to other solar systems because the human body couldn’t withstand weightlessness that long, but that barrier was finally broken when engineers were able to create artificial gravity on the spacecrafts. Once that happened people could withstand the travels of space without deteriorating their bodies.

However, that was just the first advancement that was made that was needed for inter-solar system travel. Spacecraft had to be built that would sustain a human contingent of explorers for several months and even years at a time. This took a very long time to build because the ships had to be built in space. Like the colonies, the ships had to be self-sufficient since there would be no way to replenish supplies, but humans were finally able to build such ships.

Once these requirements were met, it allowed humans to make the leap between stars and settle on even more planets and moons. Along with settling on other star systems, there was hope that other life would be discovered that would prove life on earth wasn’t unusual. To everyone’s surprise and delight, life was discovered.

At first, only planets with basic life were found. There was plant life and small bug-like creatures that were unlike anything ever found on earth. As humans continued to explore they finally found the intelligent life they had been searching for. It was in a solar system that took two years to reach. However, once they reached it they were in for the biggest discovery made since humans first started roaming earth.

Finding other intelligent life, humans now had to learn to coexist with them. One species held much interest to humans. They inhabited a planet called Gorlan. It was a planet somewhat like Earth. Since it was approximately the same distance from its star as the Earth is from the sun, the planet had an atmosphere, oceans and a mixture of gases just like earth.

The main difference was the oxygen content. The oxygen content on Gorlan was much higher than the Earth’s. While humans felt great on Gorlan because of the high oxygen content, the Gorlanians struggled when trying to breathe on Earth. For them, it was like a human trying to breath at twelve thousand feet. It could be done, but the body was constantly out of breath when it was in motion.

The Gorlanian’s and human’s body structure were similar. They had two legs, two arms and one head. Their feet were more like flippers as they spent a lot of time in their oceans. They lived on land but were at home in the ocean as well. Because of their flipper-like feet, they could walk, but they couldn’t move quickly. It was kind of like a penguin walking.

Their skin was more like a shark’s skin, both in color and texture. They were much bigger than humans, growing to ten feet and weighing in at five hundred pounds. Their heads were twice the size of humans, but did have two giant eyes with small ears. They didn’t have much of a nose as it was mainly two small slits that allowed them to smell. Their arms were short and stubby which led to hands that contained five fingers and two thumbs.

At first, the inhabitants of Gorlan and Earth were amazed at one another. The Gorlanians were slightly more advanced than humans but not by much. Both civilizations had much to learn from the other, so for a hundred years, both species lived in peace as they settled other worlds and worked together.

However, just like humans always fought with one another over new territory so did the Gorlanians and Earthlings. Both wanted to settle new moons and planets and there were battles, not with weapons but with words over who could settle which planets.

Eventually, a treaty was signed that declared which star systems each of the races could settle and mine. All new discoveries would be given to the civilization that discovered them. That seemed to placate everyone and life continued to function smoothly.

In the year 2292, all of that changed as the people of earth found themselves in a war like no other war that had been fought. It was going to be a brutal war and there were only two possible outcomes: either humans would win and preserve their way of life or they would lose to the Gorlanians and would be annihilated.

This shouldn’t have come as a surprise to the humans since both species had a need and impulse to conquer and settle other worlds. Humans especially had always wanted to populate other lands and it was built into their DNA. The Gorlanians were like the humans in that they had already conquered other lands and were growing their territory as well.

Not only did both species want to expand but they needed more raw materials to support their growing populations. It was just a matter of time before one of the two civilizations declared war on the other. Unfortunately for humans, the Gorlanians struck first.

They secretly sent a contingent of ships towards the Earth’s solar system as they planned on attacking all the outer settlements, including Earth itself. Even with the advances in technology, the Gorlanians moved through space undetected by human radar.

When they were in position, they prepared to unleash a massive surprise attack on colonies throughout the solar system as well as colonies in other parts of the galaxy. To say the attack would be a surprise to humans was a huge understatement. Because of the decades of peace that humans had become accustomed to, they hadn’t expected war. That didn’t mean they didn’t have a military because they did. However, it was woefully underprepared.

This war would be the ultimate test for human kind and would prove to be their biggest test ever faced.

Chapter 1

I sat at the bar drinking my beverage, enjoying my time staring at the beach as the waves rolled in. I was in a bar on the beach in California City, nursing my drink and thinking about what I was going to do tonight. California City was a huge metropolis that extended the entire coast of what was once Mexico to what used to be known as Canada. The city never shut down and establishments were open twenty-four hours a day so there was no shortage of things to do.

As much as I wanted to go out and have a good time, I also knew I didn’t need to get into any kind of trouble and if I continued drinking alcohol all night, who knew what kind of trouble I would find. It was probably best that I have another drink or two then go back to my hotel, making sure I had a clear head for tomorrow.

I was a newly commissioned Lieutenant in the Coalition Space Force which was the military for the International Coalition of the Countries of Earth, or ICCE for short. ICCE was formed over a hundred years ago by all the countries of Earth to bring peace and harmony to the planet. It worked because the people of Earth could work together instead of battling each other. Of course, that didn’t happen overnight, but it did happen over the course of several decades.

Once ICCE was formed, there was only one government and one military for all the countries of the Earth, making sure that the countries worked together and were united in everything they did.

I happened to be a fighter pilot in the Coalition Space Force. Well, I’m not an official fighter pilot yet, but I will be in the next couple of days. After I graduated from college a year ago, I entered the Academy and went through various courses and rigorous training before finally graduating nine months ago. Once I graduated from the Academy, I was sent to fighter school and graduated from there a little over a week ago. I was given ten days of leave before I was to join my carrier as a newly commissioned pilot.

I come from a very well-off and some would say rich, family. Saying that I was rich was probably an understatement. Most people would probably call it filthy rich. In fact, we were one of the richest families in North America.

My parents put me through one of the best universities on Earth and my father had dreams that I would join the family business as soon as I graduated. I was never thrilled with the idea of joining the family business, but figured it was my destiny and something I had to do, no matter what I desired. It had been the same way for him and my grandfather.

All through college, it kept bothering me, knowing what was in store for me for the next several decades. I kept contemplating doing something different, but I didn’t want to disappoint my father and quite frankly, I didn’t know what else I wanted to do.

After graduating from California City University, which had become one of the most prestigious universities on Earth, I thought about my future. The more I thought about it, the more I realized I had no desire to join my father’s business. I wanted to make my own way in life and I wanted to do something that I felt was important. I wanted it to be my decision and not have other people decide what I should do for the rest of my life. Not only that, but I wanted to do something that I enjoyed and I knew the family business was not going to be enjoyable for me.

After putting off the call to my father for a couple of weeks, I finally got the nerve to call him so I could try to explain my decision. I had no doubt he was going to be disappointed because it was always expected I would come work for him, then eventually take over the business. It was never discussed. It was just assumed.

Imagine my father’s shock and surprise when I informed him that I was joining the military instead of the family business. I knew he wasn’t going to take it well, but I had no idea that he would take it so poorly.

As I spoke to him on the holo-phone which was a device that allowed holograms of each other to display to the other person, I thought he was going to have a heart attack. He had never considered that I would say no to the family business because I had never given him any indication otherwise. He just assumed I would follow in his footsteps and take over the business sometime in the future. The business had been in our family for five generations and he certainly didn’t expect it to end with me.

I tried to explain to him that I wanted to do something that I enjoyed and I didn’t think the family business was right for me. The fact that it was something I didn’t want to do was irrelevant to him. At first, he wouldn’t even listen to me as I tried to explain what I wanted to do with my life. Although I was twenty-two years old at the time, he told me I was a young kid and had no idea what I was talking about. He ordered me to come home and start working for him immediately. Because the business had been in the family for generations, he felt like it wasn’t even up for discussion.

I told him I had already made my decision and there was nothing he could do to change it. At first, he thought it was just a phase and that I would eventually change my mind. However, after I went to the Space Force Academy, he soon realized I wouldn’t be changing my mind any time soon. Not that it would matter anyway because once you joined the ICCE military you had to stay in the service for ten years. There were no exceptions, not even for someone that came from a well-off family.

My father was furious, knowing I couldn’t get out of my commitment. He called everyone he knew in the government, trying to get me dismissed from the military. He didn’t care how they got me out he just wanted it done one way or another.

There were a lot of high ranking people in the government that were good friends with my father so they were more than happy to help him out. I was furious when he told me what he was going to do and I kept insisting that he not do anything about it, but he ignored me. In his mind, he wasn’t about to sit back and let me join the military when he felt I should be by his side. I let him rant about it, thinking there wasn’t anything he could do since I knew there was no way out of the military, but I was wrong.

One day I received a call from a General telling me to report to his office. Once there, he informed me that there was a minor mistake on my application and if I wanted to get out of the service, it would be no problem. Once I got over the surprise of talking to a General, I figured out what was going on.

I knew there was no mistake on my application, but this was their way of allowing me to get out if I wanted to. I’m sure my father had pulled a lot of strings to find the mistake on my application. I asked what the mistake was, but he avoided the question and kept directing the conversation to whether I wanted to get out.

At first, I thought I was going to get forced out of the military. However, that wasn’t the case. I was happy that the General told me that the mistake wouldn’t force me out of the military because I wanted to stay. The General told me it was my choice on whether I wanted to get out.

I told the General no thanks and that I wanted to stay in the military and if they wanted me to fix the minor mistake then let me know and I would take care of it. I never heard back from the General or anyone else for that matter, which indicated to me there wasn’t any mistake.

My comments about not wanting to get out of the military and my willingness to fix the mistake was relayed back to my father, making him even madder. Enraged, he told the military to kick me out, but they wouldn’t do it since I hadn’t done anything wrong. Finally, they told him that if I wanted to stay in, they couldn’t force me out.

Changing tactics, my father called me one day and threatened to cut me off from the family money and inheritance if I were to join the military. I’m sure he thought that would do the trick because the family money was an incredible amount. Our family was one of the top ten richest on the planet, but I told him that it was fine if he wanted to cut me off and his threats weren’t going to change my mind. I meant it too because I really wasn’t interested in his money and it wouldn’t bother me if I didn’t have access to it.

After that, we went a few months without talking to one another, but my mother finally made him call me, hoping we could rebuild our relationship. We tried, but we wanted different things for my future so our relationship was never the same.

Since then, we have talked a few times. Certainly, we kept the calls cordial, but they weren’t the same as they used to be. He still had ill feelings towards me and it was evident every time we talked on the phone.

Sitting in the bar, thinking about that, I pushed those thoughts out of my head because they were only making me depressed. I told myself to be happy because in a few days my job was going to be flying fighters around the galaxy. What could be better than that?

Sitting in the bar by myself, getting a little buzzed, I thought about what my life was going to be like forty-eight hours from now. In two days, I was to report to a base that was approximately thirty miles from where I sat. After indoctrination, which took about a week, I will board the Space Carrier Constellation.

Along with that carrier, there were destroyers, cruisers, and ground ships for the Coalition Ground Force as well as many other supporting ships. These ships make up the Eleventh Armada and we will be leaving for a five-year cruise to different star systems.

It would have been nice to spend my ten days off with my parents instead of being by myself since I wouldn’t be back for five years. That was my plan when I called them to tell them I had ten days before I shipped out, but I guess I was expecting too much of them.

They were still hurting from my decision not to go in to the family business, so they decided to spend time at their second home which was located on Mars. I told them that I could take a shuttle to visit them, but they said they were busy and wouldn’t be able to spend much time with me. I guess they didn’t want me to be around them because it would remind them that I was a disappointment.

We had other houses on some of the moons in the solar system as well. As I said, we were very well-off so we do not want for anything. This is a fact that I must make sure I hide from my fellow crew members. The last thing I need is for them to get wind of my wealth because I will never hear the end of it. People always treat me differently when they find out I’m rich, so I always make it a priority to keep my identity hidden from them.

Anyway, I guess I can’t blame my parents for being upset. I’m the only child in my family, which made my decision hurt them even more. Because of being the only child, it was even more important that I go into the family business because there was nobody else in our family that could do it, unless I have a child of my own and then they could go into the business. That doesn’t seem likely since I’m not even dating anyone right now. Who knows what the future will hold. If I have a child, there may be someone that will follow in my father’s shoes, but only if my child chooses that path. I will not make him or her do something they don’t want to do.

While my father was mad about the whole situation, my mother was worried about my safety. There haven’t been any wars for almost two hundred years, but being a fighter pilot is still a dangerous job. I can understand her point about not wanting me to join, but it still would have been nice to see them and to have their support before I leave.

Tired of thinking about it, I decided to turn my focus away from my parents and on to my new life. I was excited to see new worlds. Sure, I have been all over the solar system with my parents, but I have never been further than that. I knew it was going to be exciting to see what other moons and planets are out there.

We’ll be out there protecting ICCE from any threat, not that there has been a threat from anyone. Still, you never know, there could be other life forms that we don’t even know about that are out there ready to battle us. I didn’t really think there would be any danger in traveling through all the star systems, but I was young and most young people didn’t worry about danger.

As I understand it, we will stop at space stations every four to six months then we’re allowed to visit the nearest planet or moon. From what I’ve heard, some of the planets have been built up quite nicely and are great tourist attractions. I believe we’ll get two to seven days to visit the area so it should give me a chance to see quite a bit before we ship out and head to the next destination.

As I thought about all that, the woman that had been waiting on me turned around from the bar and looked my way. I signaled for another drink and she nodded. I figured I had two more days before my life in the Space Force started, so I might as well relax and enjoy the moment. Thinking there was no reason for me to take it easy tonight I decided to have my fill of drinks, knowing I wouldn’t have anything tomorrow night. I wanted to make sure I was clear headed when I reported to the base the next day.

I downed the last of my drink as she approached my table. I watched her make her way towards me, staring longer than I should have, but not being able to help myself as her hips swung side to side, hypnotizing me as I sat there. Knowing I should avert my eyes from that part of her body, I made myself look at her face, which was equally mesmerizing.

She was a lovely blonde with gorgeous green eyes. Her long hair was tied up so it was on top of her head which showed a long, slender neck framed with a petite necklace. Her face was round and she had the most perfect nose. It wasn’t a small button nose, but it wasn’t a large nose either. There’s no other way to describe it, except to say that it was perfect. She was slightly taller than average and had a thin build, but still had the hour glass figure. She was probably in her early twenties.

I was awestruck the first time I saw her when I walked into the bar. Immediately, I knew that I needed to meet her so I could introduce myself to the vision in front of me. I stood at the doorway for several minutes just so I could see which tables she waited on. Once I saw the section of the bar she waited on, I made sure I picked one of her tables.

Excuse me? she asked.

What? I said as she interrupted my thoughts.

I said will there be anything else that I can get you? she asked again as she sat my drink down on the table."

Chapter 2

I handed her a hundred-dollar mark as I tried to muster up the courage to talk to her. Considering I was somewhat of a loner, it was difficult for me to strike up a casual conversation, especially since I had no idea what to say.

Assuming she was used to men asking her out all the time, I didn’t think there was any way that she would go on a date with me, but there was just something about her that made me want to ask her anyway, even though I would be leaving for my tour in space soon. I knew that if I didn’t at least try, I would regret it for the rest of my life. Well, maybe I wouldn’t regret it for the rest of my life, but I would certainly regret it for a few days. As I thought about it, I decided to make the effort. After all, the worst thing that could happen was that she would say no, which I figured was a good possibility.

There is just one other thing I would like to know, I commented.

What’s that?

What time do you get off tonight? I asked then swore at myself for not coming up with something funny or witty before